preparations were made for landing the troops without delay. On the 6th the troops got into the boats, and everything was ready for the disembarkation. In consequence of a flag of truce from the shore, the landing was delayed, and in the afternoon the troops returned to their respective ships. The negotiations between the commanders having failed, the order was renewed for disembarking the troops next day. This order was again countermanded about midnight; the morning became stormy, and at break of day the signal was made for the fleet to weigh, and by the afternoon the whole fleet was again under sail. Part of the forces were now ordered for Portugal under the command of general Sir James Pulteney, and the remainder for Malta, where they arrived about the middle of November. Than this sailing backwards and forwards, nothing was ever exhibited more strongly indicative of extreme folly and absolute imbecility in the national councils.
It was now resolved by the British government to drive the French out of Egypt, and the armament, which had uselessly rolled about the Mediterranean for so many months, was appointed for that purpose. Sir Ralph Abercromby, accordingly, embarked at Malta on the 20th of December for the bay of Marmorice, on the coast of Caramania; where cavalry horses were to be procured, and stores collected for the expedition, which, it was calculated, would sail for Alexandria by the 1st of January, 1801. Many things, however, occurred to retard their preparations. Among others of a like nature, three hundred horses, purchased by order of Lord Elgin, the British ambassador at Constantinople, were found, when they arrived at Marmorice, so small and so galled in their backs, as to be of no use, so that it was found necessary to shoot some, and to sell others at the low price of a dollar a-piece. It was believed that Lord Elgin had paid for a very different description of horses, but the persons to whose care they had been confided had found their account in changing them by the way. Good horses were procured by parties sent into the country for that purpose; but the sailing of the expedition was in consequence delayed till the end of .February, instead of the first of January, as had been originally intended; and from the state of the weather, and other casualties, the landing could not be attempted before the 8th of March, on which day it was accomplished in Aboukir Bay, in a manner that reflected the highest honour on the British troops. During this delay Bonaparte had found means to reinforce his army in Egypt, and furnish it with all necessary stores; and the weather, preventing the immediate disembarkation of the troops, enabled the French to make every preparation to receive them. The sand-hills which form the coast, they had lined with numerous bodies of infantry, and every height was bristling with artillery. A most tremendous discharge of grape-shot and shells from the batteries, and of musketry from the infantry that lined the shore, seemed for a moment to stay the progress of the boats as they approached. But it was only for a moment. The rowers swept through the iron tempest to the beach; the troops leaped on shore, formed as they advanced, and rushing up the slippery declivity without firing a shot, drove the enemy from their position at the point of the bayonet. Successive bodies, as they were disembarked, proceeded to the help of their precursors, and, in spite of every obstruction, the whole army was landed before night; and Sir Ralph Abercromby advancing three miles into the country, took up a position with his right resting upon lake Madyeh or Aboukir, and his left stretching to the Mediterranean. On the 12th he moved forward to attack th French, who were most advantageously posted on a ridge of sand-
